


Darling Of The Capitol

by areyousanta



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Action/Adventure, Anxiety, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, How Do I Tag, I might edit this later as it progresses, Maybe - Freeform, Mild Gore, Panic Attacks, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-14 22:28:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9206705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/areyousanta/pseuds/areyousanta
Summary: Genevieve Armstrong becomes the Fullmetal Alchemist's bodyguard and they get into a lot of trouble together, but honestly, it's the best time Gen has ever had in her entire life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize in advance for this.  
> I'm new to writing but I've had this chapter done for I think a year now?? Idk I was just too nervous to post it before...but that's gone.  
> I hope you enjoy!

_*They walked down the long corridor to the Amestris Military State Alchemist testing wing of the Eastern Headquarters. Every alchemist must go through this wing in order to receive their state certification, including the man practically strutting in front of her like he owned the place.*_

Of course, that's not why I'm walking down this hallway.

"Since the military relies highly on their State Alchemist, I thought you should witness how these men earn their certification," Mustang says with his nose in the air like he has me convinced. "Genevieve, you are new to the Military so you need to understand how fearsome we Alchemist can be." He turns to give me what I assume is a snarl.

State Alchemist are more like dogs of the military. These pups are relayed to the country as scientists for the people, enlisted to research ways for alchemy to help the people of Amestris. However, they are only used as human weapons, used to do the military's bidding in war with their specialties in alchemy. These specialties are used as second names for the State Alchemists as a way to identify them. This idea was originally designed to keep the Alchemist's name coded so no one knew who or what they were talking about. However, the more famous the Alchemist is, the less this idea applies to them. The name just becomes a cool nickname then. Colonel Roy Mustang is known as the Flame Alchemist, so you can guess what his specialty is. There are others too, Alex Louis Armstrong, my cousin, the Strong Arm Alchemist. His specialty is basically punching rocks and other things and transmuting them into ballistic projectiles and send them racing to his target.

"Are you sure that's your reason for dragging me down here?"

He looks at me, fully prepared for the smart-ass comment about to make its way past my lips.

"Or is it you wanted to get away from Hawkeye and that three-foot stack of papers on your desk?", I retort with my trademark smirk.

He slumped his shoulders and started to walk silently down the hallway.

"It was a damn good excuse" he said after a few moments.

I smile to myself."You do know I have known you since I was in diapers...I can tell when you're lying."

This man, I swear.

Roy Mustang, a class-A bastard, is the only person I have been able to call a father. Being born into such a rich and renowned family like the Armstrong's, I am expected to behave a certain way and follow in the only path a girl should take in this family; marry rich and have lots of babies. Well at least this is how my mother thinks. My cousins, Alex and Olivier, their parents are proud of their children no matter who they choose to be. Sounds nice.  
But no I pulled the short stick on this - and for this decision I was basically disowned from my family and my parents rarely talk to me, only the occasional "Happy Birthday" or "Your throwing your life away..." clichéd speech. Ironically they usually happen on the same day. I met Colonel Mustang when I was about 3 when I went with my father to visit his old alchemy buddy, Berthold Hawkeye, Lt. Hawkeye's father and Colonel Mustang's alchemy teacher. Ever since that first day, Hawkeye and Mustang have seen and understood how miserable I was being forced into this family. They both basically took me in and have showed me how a mother and father should act toward their child.

He stops and turns to look at me again, "Darling, it's impossible for anyone to get a lie past you. You've always had that superpower."

"Whatever...You know Hawkeye is going to find out you lied and then she's going to kick your ass...Ohh!" I bring my hand to my chin in mock surprise - "I would love to see her rip you a new one."

"Ahhh but it was so worth it", Mustang sighs as we continue our walk down the hallway. " You know for an eleven-year-old you have quite the mouth."

I smirk at him, "Gee I wonder who I got that from?"

A few minutes later he stops abruptly and I ram my nose into his back. I can already feel it start to throb.

"Well, here we are!" he said with the excitement of a five-year-old, his obsidian hair bouncing up and down as he slightly jumps up and down.

"Ugh...Do I really need to go to this? I was supposed to go to the range and practice what Hawkeye showed me for my sharpshooter's exam, which as you should already know, is in a month!"

I just graduated from boot camp and earned the rank Private and was put under the tutelage of Colonel Mustang. I excelled in marksmanship and was able to be placed in a Sharpshooters exam that normally only soldiers with the ranking Sergeant or above can take. Colonel Mustang's shadow and bodyguard, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye was the first woman ever to pass and to this day has the highest score made on the exam. She holds the name The Hawk's Eye because of this and the number of kills she has made as a sharpshooter in Ishval. This makes her seem like the scariest woman alive, but, she is unbelievably kind and understanding. She is my acting commanding officer and is instructing me on marksmanship and training me for this exam. So you can say that I'm the luckiest solider in the military to have her training me.

"Genevieve you need to understand how the entire military system works, not just...."

"Colonel Mustang and Private Armstrong!"

I glance over my shoulder to see a very large man with an eye patch glaring down at us with two equally large men hovering slightly behind him....weird.

He raises his eyebrow at me. "Colonel Mustang, have you yet to teach your subordinate how to address her superiors?"

Superiors? I look over to a saluting Mustang and then back over to the strange man. How many stars are on this man's shoulders? One, two....shit.

"Sorry sir! I didn't realize who you were." I immediately stand at attention a bit sheepishly.

My eyes fall to the ground as I start to feel Mustang's eyes at the back of my head, probably trying to burn a hole there.

"HA-HA-HA!" A booming voice echoes through the hallway and my eyes shoot up to see the pirate man smiling. "No worries young one, you only joined a few months ago, I didn't expect you to recognize me. It's not like your superior officer would teach you everything there is to know about the military", he glances over at Mustang.

Oh geez I am going to hear about this later.

"Come to see another young'n join the military too?", the pirate inquires.

A young'n? What is this man talking about.

I look over to Mustang. "Yes sir, I wanted to show Private Armstrong each and every branch of the military and how it works so she is able to know how the military as a whole works together to protect our country."

"Pfftt..." I can barely stifle my giggle; yeah that's why I'm in this place.

"Are you interested in alchemy, private? You are a Armstrong after all; we could use another soldier like The Strong Arm Alchemist in our arsenal. You are cousins to Alex and Olivier Armstrong, am I right?"

I put on my brave face. "Yes sir. I am really interested in alchemy but I am definitely nowhere near Alex's level. I took from more the sword fighting side of the Armstrong family like Olivier did....Sir."

The one eyed pirate looks down at me. "Well when you do reach his level let me know, we can use all the help we can get these days. Enjoy watching Mr. Elric's test and the rest of your detour from that pile of paperwork sitting on your desk, Colonel. "

Pirate man walks into the room with his monkeys behind him.

"Does it always feel like he is peering into your soul when he talks to you?", I say with the breath I didn't know I was holding," ...and what was his name again?"

"KING Bradley, and Yes he is always like that." He lifts his hand.

WHACK! - he smacks the back of my head.

"That's for making me look bad, and this..." - WHACK! - "...is for telling on me."

I feigned innocence while I rub the bump forming on the back of my head. "I didn't tell him anything! He probably just overheard us while we were walking down the hallway - he was probably spying on us - he seems like the kind of guy who would do that...creep."

Ever since King Bradley took power, the politicians have had less and less say in the decisions for the country. Now, when there is the threat of war, instead of the Bishops weighing the pros and cons of going to war and thinking logically about it, King Bradley dives right into the war without a second thought. Because of his impulsiveness, many of Amestris' State Alchemists left the military because they couldn't stand being human weapons; many of these tried to assassinate Bradley and take back the country. All of these attempts have failed; not because Bradley has a great bodyguard team, but he himself is a master swordsman. I've seen him fight once and it was over before I even knew someone was attacking him. The draw of his sword is so quick all you see is a burst of light and then blood is spewing from the enemy.

"Yes and insubordination against him will get you fired, you hear me private?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't make fun of the pirate dude...got it. Can we watch this assessment-thingy so I can get back to practicing?" My hands take their leave on my hips and stay there to assist me in taking a sassy stance.

Mustang tilts his head to the side and huffs a small laugh, "Alright, let's go in."

We push past the same double doors King Bradley and his monkeys went through and enter this massive room. We walk in on the observation balcony looking down onto a large room. There are eight white columns lining a blue and grey floor with the military's insignia mosaic in the middle: a dragon eating its tail. Standing in the center of the room on the dragon is boy who is dressed in the tackiest clothing I have ever seen. Black leather pants with matching leather boots that squeak against the floor as he shifts his weight, and a long red coat with the ancient symbol of alchemy on the back in black. To add to his tackiness his blonde hair is twice as long as mine and fashioned into a very sloppy braid leaving his bangs to cover his face.

"Edward Elric," Mustang begins beside me, " he's 12 years old and apparently a master Alchemist from a small farming village in the east. How that brat learned alchemy in a grimy barn by himself is beyond me."

I gaze up to him confused, "How do you know he's a brat? He seems more like a condescending asshole to me."

"Again with the mouth," he heaved out a lengthened sigh, "I recruited him. There was word spreading in the east about a pair of brothers who's alchemy power could surpass the strongest state alchemists. I got there to find two little boys who behind all the rumors and the oldest of the two, Edward, made me aware of the fact that the rumors are true. And, surprisingly enough, his mouth and smart-ass attitude are worse than yours."

" Wow is that even possible?" I walk forward and lean over the railing..

Mustang hands me a packet of papers, a copy of some of the research he had to present to the military. I look around and everyone has one in hand and is mulling it over. Skimming through it I see that his research base is on metal manipulation, specifically iron and steel. It states that this type of alchemy would be the most beneficial for the military since there is never a shortage of metal around us; in the ground, the walls, and even our own flesh and blood. Finishing reading I see some of the sense in his writing and I begin to get excited to see how he will show the Alchemist Board his technique.

Elric slumps his shoulders and looks around at the people on the observation balcony, "Yo, do I really have to do this with an audience?" He turns fully and we make eye contact and I feel my breathing hit a roadblock in my throat.

I did not expect him to have such golden eyes. His face is set in a permanent scowl, lips turned down and eyebrows laying heavy on his eyes. It would seem that he felt most comfortable wearing an annoyed face than trying to feign professionalism, even now with the leader of our country in front of him.  
I assume he notices me staring at him intently because he turned his nose up at me and raised an eyebrow. I immediately bring his research paper back to my face to hide my blood splotched face and ears, "Smooth move Gen..." I mutter in annoyance.

Mustang walks up beside me and gives me a look. I nod my head and look back down onto Elric.

King Bradley gestures to Elric, " Alright Mr. Elric, you may begin."

Two men walk up and stand on either side of Elric. He mumbles something to the soldier which causes the man to rear back and silently scold him. Then, in a louder voice he asks, "Do you need any kind of writing utensil like chalk to draw the base circle or do you have a tattoo you use?"

"I don't need any of that," he says as he begins to raise his hands.

He presses his palms together in front of his mouth and closes his eyes in what looks something like a kind of prayer.

Suddenly the ground below him starts to glow a smoky blue and red lightning erupts from the earth as he shoots his eyes open. He extends his right arm to the side and from the ground below his hand transpires an intricately designed handle. As it slowly rises from practically nothing on the ground I can see the design is just as tacky as he is.

"...How is he doing this..." I look up to see Mustang's mouth open and eyes wide watching this child perform such amazing alchemy. "He's transmuting without the use of a base circle"

"It's obviously not impossible, he's doing it,"...and that comment awarded me another bump on the back of my head.

The blue light begins to fade and I look back down to see Elric holding a long spear that has a dragon encircled around the head and tail of the spear. Tacky...amazing, but tacky.

Suddenly he runs full speed toward King Bradley, his spear pointed at the pirates face.

All of Bradley's men and many of the officers observing draw their weapons, including myself, and make aim for Elric. He stops us all with a raise of his hand and Elric halts his spear inches away from Bradley's face.

"You really should reconsider how you run these exams. Having such an important military head over watching this and assassin can kills you easily." Elric raises his spear away from Bradley's face and we lower our weapons.

Bradley huffs a laugh. "You must have nerves of steel young man. However, you do not know this world." He turns and walks towards the doors.

All of a sudden the blade of Elric's spear falls to the ground with a loud crash as he wears a dumbfounded face . Everyone looks back to King Bradley who is using one hand to wave back to Elric and holds his drawn sword in the other hand.

"Good luck with the rest of your exams Mr. Elric." He walks out the door he came with his monkeys behind him again and all the soldiers in the room salute him as he does so. Elric still hasn't moved and still has that ridiculous face on

After everyone lowers their salute we all turn to leave the room and mosey on about our business again.

Mustang and I turn towards each other. "Well," he says, " looks like that brat earned his certification, I mean how could he not with a show like that."

"Who you callin' a brat you pompous bastard?"

I snap my head to the side to see Elric giving Mustang and icy cold stare.

I watch as Mustang folds his arms and gives him and equally icy stare. "Mr. Elric, you better get used to this pompous bastard, he will be your commanding officer from now on."

Elric mimics Mustangs stance. "Great, I get to have you pretending to be my father all the time now. Woo hoo." With the last part he moves his pointer finger around in a circle in the air.

At that I look down to muffle the giggle threatening to burst from my mouth. I look up to see Elric looking at me amused.

"Ha, even your little friend here agrees with me." He juts his thumb out in my direction.

Wrong move pal. I step out from behind Mustang. "Hey I'm a soldier and not his friend. Oh, and you should refrain from calling me little. I may be short but I bet I could take you and your pony-tail butt any day. Alchemy and all."

"Sorry but my mom told me not to pick fights with girls.", he shoves his hands in his pockets and saunters towards the door.

I holler after him. "Maybe because she knew you couldn't hold your own against one!"

He stops and turns his head to snarl at me but he stops when he is met with my trademark smirk. I notice a small blush forming on his cheeks and he slumps his shoulders in defeat and walks out the gigantic doors.

"Okay he is fun to mess with, Can I go to the range now?"

"Fine. Go ahead, I will let Hawkeye know and send her your way. Try not to pick any more fights on the way."

I stick my tongue out at him and shove the doors out of my way. To my surprise, Elric is right there leaning against the wall with his hands behind his head.

"Well aren't you a little firecracker?" he smirks.

I click my tongue and walk down the hallway.

He kicks off the wall and begins to follow me. "Okay look I'm sorry about what I said but I gotta ask, are you really a soldier? You look younger than I am."

I stop and look fully at his face, "No you're not sorry, yes I'm a soldier and I'm eleven, what of it?"

His lips press into a hard line, "Nothing, it's just impressive. Who joins the military when they're that young anyways? Don't you think it's kinda stupid?"

"I did and now so did you so I guess we're both stupid. Are you done? He rears back but says nothing to this.

I turn my nose up and spin on my heel to leave.

"Wait! I didn't catch your name."

I glance over my shoulder, "Private Genevieve Armstrong, it's been a pleasure."

I turn and walk to the range.

That was the first time I talked to Edward Elric, but it certainly wasn't the last.


	2. Returning Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her initial training is completed, Gen returns to Eastern Headquarters to fulfill her new duties. She is surprised to see who that invovled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay new chapter done! It's not as long as the first because I had to cut a lot of it. It will be a while for the next update since school is killer. I will be posting some tidbit background information about Gen on my Tumblr, areyousanta.tumblr.com, in the next day or two so check it out if your interested.  
> Thanks for reading!

* Six years later* 

Geez, I really hate the East. The ONLY good part about being transferred here from Northern Headquarters is that I get to see Mustang and Riza. Other than that, this pretty much sucks.

I definitely can see the people in the hallways staring me down as if I was below them. As if I didn't belong there, as if I only got to where I am by my name and kissing ass.

Same old Eastern Headquarters.

I come to a halt in front of a big door. "Wow, I remember this door being a lot bigger the last time I saw it...", I quietly muttered.

"Well yeah the last time you saw it you were what...12??"

I almost jumped out of my shoes at this voice. I started to turn to find the owner of the voice but I only made it halfway before I was tackled in a bone-crushing hug. My face was shoved into a blueberry uniform, keeping me from seeing this punk's face.

And then the overpowering smell of smoke hits me.

"Jean!" I grab his shoulders and shove him back towards the door. "Dude, you stink, you need to lay off of the cigarettes."

The sandy-haired man leans back and crosses his arms over his chest, "Don't tell me how to live my life Gen. We're at work and you have to address your superior officers with their name, the most impressive and attractive 2nd Lieutenant Jean Havoc!" He turns his nose to the ceiling with a wave of confidence that needs to be turned down a notch. 

"Uh-huh, whatever you say Havoc." I lean in and put on my smirk.

He leans in to put his nose right in my face, "You better watch who you're messing with Armstrong, it would be a shame to lose such an iconic military figure as the Darling of the Capitol."

"Call me that again and I will put a bullet right in that dumb face of yours."

I look around us to see that the majority of the people in the hallway have stopped their tasks and are now looking our way with faces that look like they just drank soured milk mixed with lemons.

My hand goes in front of Havoc's face to silence him as I turn to face the middle of the hallway. "What? This isn't a show for you, and we don't need to be quiet, so go on about your trivial business and stay out of ours."

The majority of them change their sour faces to scowls and go back to what they were doing, murmuring all the while things like "spoiled brat" or "yeah, sure, she's a darling..." I hate being associated with that name. Mustang and Hawkeye have been calling me Darling since I was little. I guess it's because they consider me to be their darling adoptive daughter. However, since I passed my sharpshooter's exam and began successfully completing missions one by one, people started to associate the name Darling with the most fearsome soldier in the military. 

This is great and all but it blows everyone's expectations of me out the window. It also doesn't help that a rumor began to spread that this "Darling" is extremely sweet and is such a cute little girl. I'm not cute or sweet. 

Suddenly the doors beside us swing open and hit the wall behind them with such force I'm surprised that it didn't leave a dent. "Havoc, you've already exceeded your allotted smoke breaks today, so finish your paperwork or so help me I....Genevieve?"

"Wow Hawkeye you still have these boys on a tight leash don't ya." I walk up to her and give her a hug. It's not as spine-snappingly hard as Jean's, but close enough. 

"You weren't supposed to be here for another hour, I thought you were going to stop by your parent's house?", she hugs me back and inquires.

I pull away and shrug my shoulders, "I did, and when I got pulled into another 'Your throwing away everything your father and I worked hard for ' speech I left. Simple as that."

Jean joins in, "So same old Armstrong family?"

"2nd Lieutenant Jean Havoc, finish that paperwork on your desk or else I will make you spend an afternoon with the Armstrongs," Hawkeye retorted.

I place my hands on my hips, "Yeah, what she said."

Jean gets in my face, "Don't you boss me around Hawkey," he juts his finger in my face for emphasis.

"You have to listen to her now Havoc, she got promoted to 1st Lieutenant last month. That's why she was transferred here, now she is permitted to be a bodyguard for an Alchemist." I love it when Hawkeye sticks up for me.

His eyes widen in horror. "Oh please no, I don't want to have to salute someone younger than me!"

My hands go up in surrender, "Whoa there Jean, I don't want you saluting me. That would just be embarrassing for both me and you." 

"Phew, dodged a bullet there," he wipes his face in fake relief. I smack his arm. "Geez so violent..."

Hawkeye leans back and sighs, "Alright that's enough, Gen your assignment is waiting for you inside."

I nod and we both walk into Colonel Mustang's enormous office. Once through the double doors, there is a cubical-like desk to the right that sits six officers who are working furiously on tall stacks of paperwork. I assume Mustang's behind on his work...again. Against the far back wall is a long desk with a large beige couch facing it. Behind the desk is Mustang sitting in his usual pose: elbows on the table and his fingers interlocked in front of his face, his eyes like fire. 

"For the last time Fullmetal, you have no choice in the matter of having a body guard. State Alchemists are important assets to the military so we can't risk them getting hurt. Deal with it." Mustang mutters from behind his hands, his voice laced with ice.

My eyes return to that beige couch and I see a black leather boot hanging off the back and a blonde braid laying over the arm of the couch.

I walk up and lean over towards Hawkeye, who has taken her stance behind the couch. "Hey, you didn't tell me the brat would be here. I would have brushed up on my 'You're so tacky I could puke' insults."

Elric sits up instantly to look over the back of the couch and I am faced with those intriguing golden eyes again "Well hey there firecracker. I see your attitude hasn't changed from that of a whiny eleven-year-old girl ." With this his mouth turns into a lopsided grin.

I lunge towards him but I don't get far because Hawkeye's strong hands are holding me back by my shoulders.

She sighs. "There will be none of that Gen, especially now since you are being assigned to him as a bodyguard."

"What!?!" Elric and I say in unison and look to each other with equally disgusted faces.

I shake my head and walk towards Mustang. "No no, you can't make me his bodyguard. We will kill each other!"

Mustang slams his hands on his table causing the glass filled with pens to fall over. "Hey Darling, I didn't have any say in this. These orders are directly from King Bradley himself." He holds out a large vanilla envelope with my name written in gold fancy letters on the front.

I snatch it from his hand and open it. My worst nightmare has come true, I am being ordered to protect this schmuck for at least one year, or so it says. I would have finished reading it but Elric decides that it's his turn to read it now and he takes it from me.

"Oi, give that back you tacky-ass brat!" I march up to him and reach for the documents. He puts them in his right hand and holds them in the air high above my head.

"Wow you are so short, it's cute. Lemme read it first and then I will give it back, Darling." He tilts his head to the side and smirks at my nickname.

I reel back and slug him in the right shoulder so he will drop the papers. However, instead of meeting doughy flesh, my fist connects with hard metal and I feel my knuckles crack against it. I gasp in pain and bring my fist against my chest trying to alleviate the burning pain. I look up to Elric to call him a freak and question him about his shoulder. However, I am stunned to see him looking concerned and ashamed. 

"Oh man are you okay? I'm so sorry here's your papers, I shouldn't have taken them." He puts the papers in front of me. 

I take them back but continue to stare at his face. "It's okay, but why is your shoulder so freakishly hard?"

Something runs across his face at the word freak; something like pain. He looks to the floor and removes his gloves I didn't know he was wearing. Now that I think about it, he was wearing them on his exam day too.

Under the glove is a shiny gray hand that he puts into a fist. He then grabs his collar with his other hand and tugs it down to reveal metal covering part of his neck and all of his shoulder. An automail arm. 

"I'm so sorry." Elric quietly croaks. He takes his gaze off the floor and puts it back on my face with a sorrowful expression.

I soften my eyes and lower my hand from my chest. I try not to wince as I extend my fingers. "Elric, it's fine don't worry about it. I'm sorry for hitting you. I shouldn't have done that, especially now since you're my boss."

At that he quickly engulfs his hand with the glove again and holds it behind his other hand like he's trying to hide it.

"Wow I'm surprised that you two can actually act civil towards one another. Darling, maybe you guys won't kill each other." Mustang says in a matter-of-fact tone.

I look at Mustang and then back towards Elric. "Well at least now you seem like a human being and not a dick," I say. 

That line manages to get that depressed look off of his face and it goes back to the annoyed one he usually sports. "Har har, at least now I know you can speak in a normal tone and not a smart-ass one all the time," he retorts.

"Aaand they're back at it...." says Hawkeye. I laugh and smile up at Elric. Maybe this won't be so bad.

"Alright, alright before you guys go and do whatever Fullmetal needs to do for his research, all Alchemist have been given an order to capture a rogue Alchemist who is terrorizing Eastern City. He was the Alchemist, James Lothbrok. After Bradley took power he abandoned the military and has been carrying out several attacks against him. The current one is proving to be the most effective for him. Lothbrok has been seen in several different areas around the city and so far has killed thirteen officers. Our orders are simple, stop him by using whatever means necessary. King Bradley wants to capture him alive, but if it comes down to it, we are allowed to kill him if capturing him proves to be too difficult. Understood?" Mustang asks.

Elric beats me to it and says, "Yes it's understood but I refuse to kill anyone. Sorry not sorry."

I walk up to him and stand by him, literally and figuratively. "Understood sir. Where are we being sent to search first?"

"The southern district." he states.

**Author's Note:**

> The only character I own is Genevieve, the rest of the characters belong the the amazing Hiromu Arakawa.


End file.
